5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Dynamite: Homecoming (4 Aug)

2. Laboured

The Five Labours of Jericho series has been a fun popcorn storyline thus far, with last week's Nick Gage war popping the audience and the ratings and the Shawn Spears bout everything it needed to be as well. Juventud Guerrera's unveiling last week looked, on paper, like a riot. Calling back to an old WCW rivalry and asking a 50-year-old Jericho to hit the top rope if he wanted to win? Great.

But the match was sloppy.

It was particularly noticeable in the first few minutes. A couple of botches prevented Jericho and Juvi from really getting going, with the duo going straight back to an attempted top rope headscissor takedown when the first try didn't get them to where they wanted to be. Things smoothed out thereafter (and the top rope Judas Effect was awesome), but this was a spluttering, janky outing, making it tough to buy what MJF was selling on commentary.

These guys have a combined age of 96. Perhaps we should have seen this coming, though the bout was a net negative regardless.

Wardlow laid Jericho out after the bell, with MJF announcing the big man as Le Champion's next Labour. That'll be a different kind of match, likely focusing on Jericho working from beneath, so here's hoping it holds together better than this one.